Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said he had put together a proposal that would make rates affordable and deliver the things Aucklanders want. Photo / Michael Craig
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said he had put together a proposal that would make rates affordable and deliver the things Aucklanders want. Photo / Michael Craig
Brown opened today’s proceedings, saying it is meeting number 41 or 42 in the process - a reference to the dozens of closed-door workshops on the budget - and hoped it would not drag on to the point of “needing sleeping bags”.
The budget committee, comprising the mayor, 20 councillors and two members of the Independent Statutory Board, will debate which items from the ‘Mayoral proposal’ will be included in the four-week public consultation on the budget beginning in February.
At the start of a debate on the “mayoral proposal”, Brown said he had put together what he thinks will make rates affordable and deliver the things Aucklanders want.
He said the council couldn’t keep relying on debt to solve financial problems and proposed refreshing the fiscal rules, finding savings and introducing new financial budgeting tools.
”If we do the things I propose in the LTP (Long-Term Plan) we can keep residential rates to 7.5 per cent in year, down to 3.5 per cent in year two, 8 per cent in year three almost - due to the City Rail Link operating costs - and after that we can get down to rate increases near inflation.
City Rail Link's Sean Sweeney near Te Waihorotiu station, which is part of the Auckland project. Photo / Dean Purcell
”I’m sure our ratepayers will thank us for finally putting our costs on the table and dealing with it upfront other than surprising them and ourselves… it is now time for us to decide on what the public can have a say on,” Brown said.
Brown said the 20 councillors might not agree on everything in his proposal but he did not want Aucklanders to get chopped out from having a say on the options, which include to “pay more, and get more” and “pay less, and get less”.
Today’s meeting is the first step in the lengthy process of developing Auckland Council’s 10-year budget, otherwise known as its Long-Term Plan.
Following modelling by officers that indicated a 14 per cent rate rise would be necessary to balance the budget next year, Brown has trimmed the figure to 7.5 per cent.
This will be followed by a rates increase of 3.5 per cent in 2025, 8 per cent in 2026 for a one-off hit from the City Rail Link, and about 3 per cent thereafter.
Advice from officers is that the council continues to face “significant financial challenges” externally and a legacy of short-term measures to address budget shortfalls, which need more permanent solutions.
The business arm of the Port of Auckland could be sold by way of a long-term lease. Photo / Michael Craig
A key part of Brown’s proposed budget is selling a long-term lease for Port of Auckland’s operating business while keeping the waterfront land in public ownership.
He wants to put the proceeds into an ‘Auckland Future Fund’ starting with $3 billion to $4b that will invest in diversified assets along the lines of the NZ Super Fund.
The fund will include the council’s remaining $1.3b share portfolio in Auckland Airport that could be sold down, and possibly the $833 million of proceeds from the partial sale of council shares in the airport this year.
Brown said: “Any natural disaster or pandemic would impact Auckland’s airport or ports…it makes sense to spread our exposure to risk across different markets.”
The sale of the port business is fiercely opposed by the Maritime Union and it is unclear if Brown has the numbers around the council table to offload the port business.
The mayor also has cost-cutting plans for transport, but a few sweeteners as well, such as a $50 cap per week on all buses, trains and ferries in the inner harbour, and allowing passengers to use PayWave with an Eftpos card, rather than the Hop card.
Pay Wave could soon be used instead of the AT HOP card on public transport.
Auckland Transport’s $16b capital programme for the LTP has been reduced to $14b in the mayoral proposal, including cuts to “low-value initiatives that cost too much” like $80m on raised road tables, and reducing the cycleway budget by $141.5m to $430m.
The budget also includes proposals to combine back-office services for all council-controlled organisations (CCOs) such as IT, property management and HR, and defunding earthquake strengthening.
Brown said he was adamant these capital works cuts were “not solely a cost-cutting measure”.
“The mayoral proposal seeks to improve Auckland Council’s core services by prioritising issues that really matter to Aucklanders and pausing those that don’t make a real difference or should be funded externally,” he said.
Following public consultation and comprehensive deliberations, the 10-year budget will be finalised and adopted in June 2024.
